Competitive battling is really fun!
No, I do mean it.
What I like about competitive Pokemon battling is that it requires strategy and mind games in order to defeat your opponents. Brute force cannot work and often will be punished.
It's like more complicated version of chess. You have 6 pieces instead of 16, and each piece can be customizable to an extent. Each of your Pokemon has strengths and weaknesses and there are certain match-ups that has to be remembered (because you do not ever bring a Pokemon in to battle against an opponent that Pokemon can't defeat, knowing very well you have other Pokemons that you can use against it).
I wasn't very into the competitive nature of Pokemon at first. I was just the typical trainer who would complete the main story and maybe play a bit of the battle subway/frontier/maison/tower/etc. That being said I do have little (as in, very little) knowledge on how competitive works by playing the online battle simulator Pokemon Online.
Then Pokemon X and Y came, and that changed everything. EV training is much accessible now with Super Training and Horde encounters. IV breeding for perfect Pokemon, while still rather annoying, is very much easier than previous generations. So I thought to myself, why not give it a go?
Before trying out EV training and IV breeding, I found out my team fares rather horribly in Battle Spot's Rating Battle. So I decided to train up a team. This team was no ordinary team, it was a team comprising of 5 of my friend's favourite Pokemon (and the last one being mine). Thus, the first generation of IV bred and EV trained Pokemons were born.
Lucky * (Jolteon) was the fastest of them all, and was the go-to lead as it could use Volt Switch, it could also use Roar or Toxic (depending on the moveset I chose for it). While I rarely use him now, he was one of my most frequently used Pokemon in Rating Battle and did save me a few times.
Gordon (Starmie) was the 2nd fastest in this team. It was my Rapid Spinner and an offensive attacker. Again, like Lucky *, I hardly use Gordon now, but it's one Pokemon I have my utmost respect for making an incredible comeback when I was down three to 1 in a Rating Battle.
Hydra (Charizard), a starter with some incredible potential. He was my Mega Pokemon, and had an offensive physical moveset that comes with Mega-Charizard X. I still use him from time to time, and he never disappoints me.
Epsilon (Metagross) is a hard to breed one, but being bulky has its uses. From my experience with it, I found out that a Close Combat from Mega-Lucario is not powerful enough to defeat it, and would lose to it should Epsilon use Hammer Arm/Earthquake. It's not a staple in my team now, but it can easily be a replacement Pokemon should I need one since it's rather dependable.
Sharky (Garchomp) was another Pokemon I had that has a Mega-form, but I did not use it for the Mega-form because I thought the decrease in speed actually hinders it from doing a lot of significant damage as it might be outsped by fast Pokemon that had Ice moves. He was quite good as a normal Garchomp being able to defeat a Mega-Garchomp, and better yet defeat a Mega-Kangaskhan all by himself. But much later down the line, I was able to make a Sand Storm team, and with my Baton Passing Speed Boost Blaziken in that team, I decided that it's time for Sharky to use his Mega-Form.
Finally my favourite Pokemon, Simon the Excadrill was in the first generation of bred Pokemon and was the first Pokemon I had with 5 IVs (though not perfect). Simon was one beastly member of my team due to it's high attack. However, the fact that some people may not like the idea of using a Sand Rush Excadrill made me let Simon rest in the sidelines. But later, I realized that I needed Simon to shine, and I decided that I did not care what they thought of (since only Legendaries are considered banned), so I placed him back in my Sand Storm team.
With my first 6 members, I did pretty well against people worldwide in the rating battles, raising my win rate back to 50% (which was the minimum requirement to satisfy me). I also did something with this team which was pretty awesome in my opinion. I raised them to level 55, and pit them against the Elite 4 and Champion with Set battle format and not allowing me to use Pokemon Amie beforehand and not using healing items during battle. Needless to say, they were able to enter the Hall of Fame despite being 8 levels lower than the weakest Pokemon of the Elite 4.
Then I decided to breed another Pokemon. And that Pokemon was a Kangaskhan. I was able to breed a rather good Kangaskhan (though not perfect IVs, but I didn't mind then). She was one of my aces as she's incredibly powerful when in her Mega-form, and saving me in a couple of matches. She's still a staple in my team, but she will be traded away to my best friend since I bred her successor - a Kangaskhan with 5 perfect IVs. Nonetheless, the new Kangaskhan will still take the name of older Kangaskhan - Kate n Nate.
The first Kate n Nate was the last Pokemon I bred in my first generation of my Pokemon breeding. Since then, I've bred more Pokemons, and them having IVs in the right places.
The first Pokemon bred in the second generation of breeding was a Greninja I called Strider. I found a Froakie with Protean from Wonder Trade, and I thought 'why not breed it'. After experiencing several hours of not breeding a 5IV Protean Froakie (I had a 5IV perfect TORRENT Froakie), Arceus has decided to bless me with a Protean Froakie that has 6 perfect IVs. That Froakie turned out to become the Strider he is today, and has been terrorizing many teams due to it's high speed and the power of Protean.
Then I bred Tim Drake (the Gale Wings Talonflame). Having 5 perfect IVs, he's one of my favourite birds around (next to Staraptor) for it's amazing ability and it's approach to enemies (by Brave Bird, taking it's life in the process). He's still a threat to most teams, but due to me not having a practical way to counter Stealth Rock (the thing that eats Tim Drake and Hydra for breakfast), I decided that I would not use him too often.
Using some spare 5IV Pokemons I have, I was able to trade them with other trainers, and I got my next three Pokemon - Tyranitar, Gengar, and Rotom.
Tyranitar was the main reason I decided I should go for my favourite kind of team (the Sand Storm team). I noticed that he had Outrage as an egg move, so I decided to scrap the plan of using him as a Stealth Rock user and make him an offensive tank. I equipped him with an Assault Vest, and from my battles, I realized that a STAB Aura Sphere from Mega Mewtwo X is not enough to take down this beast.
Gengar has an odd name (Bb15), due to his original master wanting to sort them systematically. While not having the egg-move Disable, I did place Taunt of him as a way to surprise some opponents. His fast, though not as fast as Strider, but he hits harder. At one point he had Sucker Punch in his arsenal, which surprised a Mega-Gengar user whose Mega-Gengar didn't have much health left.
The Rotom I had wasn't perfect, so I decided to breed it to perfection - but I failed. The Rotom I have with me has 5 IVs (lacking of Speed), but has a decent speed stat (as it's speed is 12 instead of 11). I decided to use it to burn people with Will-O-Wisp, and then use Rest (since it's a tank). While still new in my team, the burn it causes is invaluable. The Rotom I had took the form of a washing machine, and it's name it WRotom.
Another tank I just bred is a Ferrothorn whose name is loosely based on the popular Malaysian fruit the Durian (his name is Duryan). He is my Leech Seeder and has explosive personality. Also a new member of my team, so he hasn't had his awesome moments yet.
The latest Pokemon that I raised to level 50 is a Shuckle I called Stones. He's the latest member to my Sand Storm team and can take a beating. He is my Toxic user and another Rest user to stall the battle. He also has the Ability Contrary, and uses Shell Smash to make him even bulkier. While new, I've tested him on a Free Double Battle on Battle Spot. He was able to defeat a Mega Blastoise and Marrowak while being the only member alive in my team.
Anyways, this is just me reminiscing the experiences I have with the Pokemon I used for battle. As you can see, I'm not really a guy that aims to win the battle. While winning is nice, I enjoy the experience of battling with my team even more than that. We win together, and lose together, and that's all that matters.
No comments:
Post a Comment